Acts 11:16, commentary and pictures

When Peter began to speak in the house of Cornelius at Caesarea, the Holy Spirit fell on his Gentile hearers, and he afterward recounted this to the brethren in Judea to explain why he had gone with the men from Caesarea, entered a Gentile home, preached Christ, and met and eaten with the uncircumcised. What he remembered at that moment was the word of the Lord drawing the distinction that John indeed baptized with water but His followers would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

That word was fulfilled when the Spirit came upon Cornelius and his household and the other Gentiles just as upon the Jewish believers at the beginning at Pentecost, shown by their speaking with tongues and magnifying God. This marked a new phase and opening of the gospel in which the promise of baptism with the Holy Spirit was realized for Gentiles as fully as for Jews. The equal outpouring means God gave believing Gentiles the like gift He gave to those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, proving He is no respecter of persons. By that gift He showed He had accepted and welcomed them and had granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life.

That gift ended the ceremonial distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision and the regarding of Gentiles as common or unclean, so that Gentile believers who accept Jesus stand on an equal footing with Jewish disciples without being required to be circumcised. The verse thus vindicates Peter's course as obedience to God that could not be withstood or opposed, in direct fulfillment of God's plan carried out through heavenly messengers to break down prejudice and bring the truth to Gentiles. Therefore old prejudices and exclusiveness between Jews and Gentiles must be utterly destroyed by the gospel, and believers must be willing to be taught and to yield their own ideas to God. The baptism with the Spirit did not make water baptism unnecessary, since the Gentile believers were also baptized.